Well!!! We are off again. The alarm shot me bolt upright, to a rude awakening at 7.30 am… We showered, breakfasted, John did all the horrible jobs like washing up and bins… while I crammed the last few things into the cases. I’d like to say we took a leisurely walk down the road to the station…. But that would be a lie!!!! I huffed and puffed with my case and hand luggage sat on top … John eventually had enough and took them both…. He has much strength and while yanking it up the kerb the front wheel caved in, looking dangerously like coming off it now has to be a following wheel and no longer a lead wheel!!! We nurtured it to the station. Those of you who know us will understand we only live a couple of 100 yards away.. takes 5 minutes to get there …. 20 minutes later!! John was buying single tickets to Gatwick and we boarded the earlier than expected train arriving at Gatwick at just before 11.00am
We got through baggage drop off, passport control and security in super quick time… Well done Gatwick!!!
Being the last of the big spenders we decided to splash the cash and have a stylish brunch at ….. yes you’ve guessed!!!!…… Wetherspoons….. they get everywhere… we haven’t had one since Scotland last year !!! I must admit it was great and set us up for the day. By 13.30 we were at the gate waiting to board and our next adventure was about to begin……
We are off to Athens for a MSC 7 day cruise on the Opera… taking us to Italy and around a few Greek islands .
…or was it about to begin!!! All aboard and we’re told we are delayed 1hr15 minutes due to the sky being busy over Croatia…. Well! That’s a first for us…. So we taxied to what they call a quiet part of the airfield to wait out our time…. The good news is the fat fella ( I know that’s a bit like the pot calling the kettle black !!!), sat next to me and the window, was already fed up of being sardined into his seat by John and me and moved back two rows to an empty rack of seats… so we were far more comfortable even if we were no further forward with our adventure! I had also purchased a seatbelt extension because those on EasyJet are meant for sizes much smaller than mine!!! So I haven’t had the harsh embarrassment of having to ask for an extension … yeah… well worth the £19 on Amazon !! I know Johns jealous but he would prefer to sit breathing in for hours than admit he’d be more comfortable with an extension!!!
We did take off at 15.50 but much to my annoyance, embarrassment, humiliation the hostess came along with an EasyJet seatbelt extension and said I couldn’t wear my own even though it was as kite marked…. I suppose my only saving Grace was this time she was asking me rather than me asking her.
it was a good flight, even though no entertainment and no usb ports etc… but what do you expect with a cheap airline. Just after takeoff the air hostess came and asked me to move into the window seat because according to the passenger behind us, who just happened to be an airplane technician, half my seat was missing, in particular the bit that holds it upright and I was in danger of being catapulted into a vertical position… I think the poor chap feared for his life !!! So I obliged and moved. The flight was 3 hours 15 minutes and we proceeded to disembark without any problems. We then walked half a marathon to the immigration and baggage claim. We were about 1.5hours late but our driver met us with a cheery smile. He quickly transferred us the 45 minutes to our hotel… We are staying at The Gallery Suites in Piraeus about 5 minutes from the port.
We were greeted by two lovely ladies and after the formalities were completed we squeezed into a minuscule lift ( if you thought ours at home was small you are mistaken by comparison ours is a ballroom!!!). We are on the 7th floor… definitely a very compact room… for those of you who remember my description of our Hilton Hotel in Singapore, or our room in Amsterdam ….well!!! this is even smaller …. Now I come to think about it we have stayed in some pretty tiny rooms around the world… anyway I digress…. The room had all we wanted and with a little furniture moving ( we moved the bed away from the wall so John didn’t have to crawl in, whilst leaving enough room to get to the bathroom) we were soon comfortably in bed… after all it was 11.44pm…. So on that note I’ll say goodnight…sweet dreams …
2 J's World of Adventure 